Akash Sama­roo

Lead Ed­i­tor-Pol­i­tics

akash.sama­roo@cnc3.co.tt

Laven­tille West MP Ka­reem Mar­celle has ac­cused the Gov­ern­ment of ap­point­ing a com­mit­tee packed with Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC) po­lit­i­cal al­lies to rec­om­mend changes to mu­nic­i­pal bound­aries, de­scrib­ing its work as the prod­uct of a “poi­so­nous yel­low fruit.”

Con­tribut­ing to de­bate on the Mu­nic­i­pal Cor­po­ra­tions (Amend­ment) Bill, 2026, in the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives, Mar­celle ques­tioned the in­de­pen­dence of the Cab­i­net-ap­point­ed Com­mit­tee for the Re­view of Mu­nic­i­pal Bound­aries in Trinidad.

He ac­cused the com­mit­tee of be­ing a UNC po­lit­i­cal group es­tab­lished to in­flu­ence the next lo­cal gov­ern­ment elec­tions.

“These amend­ments came from a poi­so­nous yel­low fruit, parad­ing it­self as an In­de­pen­dent Com­mit­tee,” Mar­celle charged.

The Op­po­si­tion MP sin­gled out sev­er­al mem­bers, in­clud­ing chair­man Stara Ram­lo­gan, whom he said had al­so been ap­point­ed a di­rec­tor of the Rur­al De­vel­op­ment Com­pa­ny un­der the UNC ad­min­is­tra­tion.

He al­so iden­ti­fied Feeroz Khan as the UNC's cam­paign man­ag­er and ques­tioned how some­one hold­ing that po­si­tion could in­de­pen­dent­ly rec­om­mend changes to elec­toral bound­aries.

Mar­celle fur­ther point­ed to for­mer Peo­ple's Part­ner­ship min­is­ter Christlyn Moore, for­mer UNC lo­cal gov­ern­ment of­fi­cial Dr Allen Sam­my and UNC gen­er­al sec­re­tary Pe­ter Kan­hai.

He al­so ques­tioned the in­clu­sion of Vi­jay Go­sine, whom he iden­ti­fied as a for­mer UNC can­di­date who sub­se­quent­ly re­ceived state ap­point­ments.

Mar­celle ar­gued that these po­lit­i­cal con­nec­tions un­der­mined the com­mit­tee's cred­i­bil­i­ty and raised ques­tions about the rec­om­men­da­tions be­fore Par­lia­ment.

Draw­ing com­par­isons with a com­mit­tee es­tab­lished un­der the Peo­ple's Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) ad­min­is­tra­tion in 1992, Mar­celle said that body in­clud­ed pub­lic ser­vants, trade union rep­re­sen­ta­tives and politi­cians from both the PNM and UNC.

He ar­gued that its com­po­si­tion demon­strat­ed a more bal­anced ap­proach to lo­cal gov­ern­ment re­form.

By con­trast, Mar­celle claimed the cur­rent com­mit­tee lacked suf­fi­cient po­lit­i­cal in­de­pen­dence.

He ac­cused the Gov­ern­ment of at­tempt­ing to ma­nip­u­late the elec­toral sys­tem through pro­posed changes to mu­nic­i­pal bound­aries.

COM­MIT­TEE FOR THE RE­VIEW OF MU­NIC­I­PAL BOUND­ARIES IN TRINIDAD

Stara Ram­lo­gan — Chair­per­son

Feeroz Khan — Mem­ber

Sab­ri­na Mowlah Baksh — Mem­ber

Christlyn Moore — Mem­ber

Dr As­sad Mo­hammed — Mem­ber

Dr Allen Sam­my — Mem­ber

Vi­jay Go­sine — Mem­ber

Cor­nelius Price — Mem­ber

Lennox Sankers­ingh — Mem­ber

Pe­ter Kan­hai — Mem­ber

Den­ish Sankars­ingh — Mem­ber